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Story from the Field

Name of Health Department/Agency:

Clay County Health Dept

State:

IN

Date Added:

05/06/2009

Themes:

State and Local Coordination

Issue Summary:

Inadequate staffing and resources

Description of Issue(s):

We do not have adequate staffing to serve our population. This year, ISDH decided to end funding for the LPHC emergency preparedness positions within local health depts and replace them with a district team concept. Unfortunately that meant taking away our key infrastructure personnel and many county governments did not wish to replace this position. Our county government would only agree to cover the position for one year only part-time due to the limited financial resources of our county.

The federal/state government needs to provide funding to local health departments to cover salaries to ensure adequate and competent staffing.

Until this year, our county had 1 public health nurse for a population of 27,0000. That is not prudent. The salary bases that are offered in public health are the lowest on the ladder and therefore, we do not attract top employees and the turn-over is immense.

If the federal and state government is going to place expectations on the local health depts, they must ensure we have the funding and the manpower to carry out our duties.